What is it??

watercolor 12" x 12"

I went to the local fruit, flower, & vegetables stand and I found this plant. I did not know what it was. When I found it, it was a stalk with what looked like coffee beans growing out of the top. I took a smell of it and that wasn't pleasant. I asked the cashier what was the name of this plant and asked for more info on it. She said it was a POPCORN plant and that it would bloom into this yellow flower and it would smell like popcorn.
Well, I planted it and then forgot all about it and then surprise...it was in bloom. So here it is. Maybe you know the name of the plant. The leaves are a bright green. It is a very different plant. I never saw one like it? Yes, it does smell like popcorn.

After the Art Fair

watercolor

Well the show was this past weekend. It was the best weather that we have had for that show thus far. Everything was great about it. I won 3rd place in wc and then they recognized the 5 of us who have been in this show for all of the 35 years that it was in existence. My sales were my best. I did a big painting of what you see here and then I went and had painted 50 little 8x10 framed wc. Lots of those you have seen on previous posts. I made prints and cards of this painting and those were selling too. Everything was great until....
I had this really bad tooth ache. It turned out that yesterday I had a root cannel and it was infected and abscessed. Man, and everything was going so great. lol
I will be getting back to the drawing board soon.....

Park Full of Art

Today and tomorrow is the Griffith, Indiana Art fair in the park. If you are not doing anything, come on by. This is one of the few weekends that it will not be in the 90's for this show. Here's hoping for a good two days. I will tell you more later.

Sad Day

Today I found out that my dear friend, Jack Turner, passed away. He was a great potter, sculptor, watercolorist, great with a pencil...he could do it all. He had so much talent it was unbelievable. He even made a CD with his music talent. He died of cancer. I will miss him so much, but he will live on in the memories that I have of him and I have so many. I know where he is at and maybe as he is looking down on me, he will send me a hint or two on how to paint. Someday we will meet again...but I hope it is not soon . Peace Jack!!

Trying that new paper

watercolor 5 x 7

Here was the other painting that I did on that new paper. I thought I would splash around and do a little color comp for a workshop that I will be teaching on Aug. 15 at the Chesterton Art Center.

New Paper

watercolor 5 x 7
Busy day today cleaning house, washing clothes and finishing up my packet. So I decided to try this new paper that I was introduced to at the Art Expo in Chicago this weekend. The company said it is the best...so I said I would try a small block. It is rough paper and I wanted to go completely wet into wet. I couldn't believe how fast it was drying. It was fun working on it, but I need to try it alot more to decide if I like it or not. I will have to go and see if it is available and if so, is it available in 300#. That is what I enjoy working on.
I had time to get two 5 x 7's done so you will see the other one tomorrow. You all come back now, ya hear!

People Workshop

I was asked to post some work from the people workshop. This is what I had the students work on. First we were working on some action figures to warm up. From there we went onto making a strip of people as a group. We will be doing more figure work in September when regular classes begin. I am running this workshop again on July 24, there are a few openings.

Today I had a DVD shot of me doing a demo. It is one of waterlilies. Right now it is being edited. It was strange having 3 cameras looking at me while I painted. The photographer had headphones on...was he listening to me or to a baseball game???

I am hoping he can get this editing process done so that they will be available for the art fair next weekend.

Workshop

Had a workshop this week and will run it again on July 24. This one was on putting people into your paintings. I think they really enjoyed this workshop. In the fall we will continue to try this in our regular classes.
Today I went to the Dick Blick Expo in Chicago. There were a lot of vendors there and I came home with lots of "stuff." I even picked up some new colors of paint to try out.

Fall Barn

watercolor - half sheet

I was asked and challenged to do a packet of one of my paintings. This is where you do a painting and then you make up a packet which has the photo of the painting, a drawing to work from and then step by step info on how to paint the painting. The instructions along with your supply list are about 4 pages long. I just jotted down my notes as I painted and I think I might have 22 pages. lol. Maybe I will make mine into a book.
Now it will be fun putting the text together. This is something new for me...you don't know if you don't try. I swore I would never do this, but my mom always told me never to swear. I always thought writing a book would be fun. We will see what happens.

Loose Lilies

watercolor 1/2 sheet

I said I would try those pink lilies again to see how loose I could get. Both paintings are done on 300# wc paper. The top one was the original painting that I did on Monday. The second painting (middle frame)was sponged to get it totally wet. Then I began to paint. This frame was done as a wet-into-wet wash. While that was drying I did some framing. Then the bottom frame is where I came into it and tightened it up and added some of the detail. I used a different pink on the second painting. I think the first pink is prettier and brighter.